People:
Lawrence Swanson
Larry Swanson has been executive director of ACTION-Housing since 2005. Prior to that he had been deputy executive director and was responsible for real estate development and oversight of property and asset management of more than 1,200 units with a combined value of $100 million. He was also in charge of property improvement, housing counseling, energy conservation, and special-needs housing initiatives. In addition to being ACTION-Housing¹s chief executive officer, he oversees three subsidiaries that implement construction, asset management, and tax credit efforts. He joined ACTION-Housing in 1979 and, together with the previous executive director, built a comprehensive regional affordable housing organization.
Mr. Swanson was a founding member of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania (formerly the Pennsylvania Low Income Housing Coalition) and served as its board president from 1985 until 1999. He remains on the board and is president of the Alliance's fundraising affiliate. He served on the State advisory committee that developed the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program for Pennsylvania. Mr. Swanson also helped develop a mortgage assistance program that at first operated locally and now operates statewide and is the largest publicly funded program of its type in the country. He worked with Housing Partnership Network staff to develop a national insurance initiative that now provides coverage for 35,000 rental homes across the country, and he serves as board chair for Housing Partnership Insurance, Inc. Prior to joining ACTION-Housing, Mr. Swanson worked with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs in program and policy development and taught at the undergraduate level at the Pennsylvania State University. He has worked as a land use planning consultant and on job development programs in Ohio. He holds a BA in political science and a master's degree in regional planning, both from the Pennsylvania State University.